Chris O'Shea
Smart home devices can certainly make your life easier, but do they really save you money? After all, it can be hard to make the leap to smart devices when your “dumb” ways of doing things have much lower upfront costs. While you might be reluctant to start adding smart home devices, the reality is they can save you plenty of cash. Here are some ways they do that.
Lighting
If you have kids, there is no doubt you tell them at least six times per day to turn off their bedroom lights. You can save plenty of money on lighting if you switch to a simple smart bulb. That’s because smart bulbs are all LEDs, which use 75 percent less energy than standard bulbs yet last 25 percent longer. If you have smart devices connected to these bulbs, even better. You can set them to timers, have them turn off when no motion is detected, and more.
Heating and Cooling
When it comes to heating and cooling your home, a smart thermostat is the only way to go. These devices can learn your habits and then automatically adjust temperatures to match your lifestyle. In this way, they can save you heaps of cash by reducing wasted energy. Smart thermostats can turn off automatically when you’re not home, or lower/raise the temperature until you come back. You can even set smart thermostats to turn on a bit before you arrive home so that you don’t open the door to a freezing or super hot home.
Energy
One way to save money on energy costs is to buy smart plugs. These plugs can eliminate “vampire energy,” when an appliance or gadget uses energy despite being turned off. Smart plugs can be customized to turn devices off completely when they’re not being used. The savings might not seem huge from month-to-month, but they will add up over time.
